Anushka Shetty

Anushka Shetty (born on 7 November 1981 as Sweety Shetty) is an Indian film actress who works mainly in the Telugu and Tamil film industries. She debuted in the 2005 Telugu film Super and rose to fame following her performance in Vikramarkudu (2006). After starring in a series of high-budget productions alongside leading Telegu and Tamil actors, she went on to became one of Telegu and Tamil cinema's leading actresses in the successive years, while receiving high critical acclaim for her portrayal of the titular character in Arundhati, and as Saroja in Vedam,which fetched her two Filmfare, one Nandi and two CineMAA Awards.

Early life

Anushka Shetty was born as Sweety Shetty on 7 November 1981 in Mangalore. Shetty is an ethnic Bunt hailing from the landed Bellipady Uramalu Guthu family. Her parents are Prafulla and A.N. Vittal Shetty. She has two brothers Gunaranjan Shetty and Sai Ramesh Shetty who is a cosmetic surgeon. She attended her schooling in Bangalore. She did her Bachelor of Computer Applications at Mount Carmel College, Bangalore. She was also a Yoga Instructor and has trained under yoga guru Bharat Thakur.

Film career

Shetty made her acting debut in Puri Jagannath's 2005 Telugu film Super alongside Akkineni Nagarjuna. The same year, she acted in another film Mahanandi, which was an unsuccessful venture. In 2006, she had four releases, the first being S. S. Rajamouli's Vikramarkudu opposite Raviteja, in which she portrayed the character Neeraja Goswami. The film went on to become very successful and got her much recognition, that eventually made her very popular in Andhra Pradesh. She next had starred in the film Astram, a remake of the 1999 Hindi film Sarfarosh, following which she debuted in the Tamil film industry, acting in the Sundar C.-directed action flick Rendu, sharing screen space with R. Madhavan. Later that year, she made a special appearance in A. R. Murugadoss' directorial debut in Telugu, Stalin.
Her first release in 2007 was Lakshyam, after which she starred in Raghava Lawrence's Don opposite Nagarjuna again. The former, in particular, succeeded at the box office. In 2008 she had appeared in six films. Okka Magaadu was the first release, in which she played one of three female leads. Her subsequent releases Swagatam alongside Jagapati Babu and Bhumika Chawla and Baladur opposite Ravi Teja garnered poor reviews and box office returns. She next appeared in the film Souryam with Gopichand which became a box office hit.
In 2009, Shetty first starred in the blockbuster hit Arundhati. In this heroine-centric film, she essayed two roles for the first time. It was a critical as well as commercial success. Critics heaped praise on Anushka for her performance. Idlebrain's Jeevi wrote that she was "simply amazing in two roles" and that she did "exceptionally well with subtle yet impact creating performance", while Rediff claimed that she was "brilliant and breathtaking in parts", labelling Arundhati as "totally Anushka's film". Sify noted that she was "at her best with great performance". She went on to win the Nandi Special Jury Award and the Filmfare Best Actress Award among other accolades. Her next film, the action flick Billa, a remake of the 2007 Tamil namesake, itself a remake of the 1978 Hindi film Don, featured Shetty in a role contrary to that in Arundati. Her final release in 2009 was her second Tamil feature film, Vettaikkaran with leading Tamil actor Vijay which was one of the highest grosser of the year. She had an array of releases in 2010, with her Tamil release Singam co-starring Suriya emerging her highest-grosser of the year, while most her Telugu films performed poorly. She portrayed a prostitute in Krish's critically acclaimed anthology film Vedam, winning accolades for her performance, including her second consecutive Filmfare Award, following which she was selected to reprise the character in its Tamil remake, Vaanam as well. Her other 2010 releases were Panchakshari, Khaleja, Nagavalli and Ragada.
Vaanam became her first 2011 release, which received critical acclaimed reviews as well. Her next release Deiva Thirumagal with Vikram became a critical and commercial success, fetching her laurels for her portrayal as Anuradha, a lawyer. The successes of her Tamil films led to Anushka growing in popularity in Tamil cinema. She was subsequently offered several high-profile productions, including A. R. Murugadoss' new project starring Vijay and the Gautham Menon-directorial Neethane En Ponvasantham featuring Jeeva. with Sify calling her the "most wanted heroine in Kollywood". She confirmed that she had signed two Tamil films, Selvaraghavan's Irandam Ulagam opposite Arya and an action-masala film to be directed by Suraj, co-starring Karthi. She agree to be part of another Tamil production, Thaandavam, in November 2011. She is shooting for two Telugu projects as well, the fantasy film Damarukam alongside Akkineni Nagarjuna and the period drama Rampachodavaram. She is also acting in Koratala Siva's Vaaradhi opposite Prabhas.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes
2005	Super	Sasha	Telugu
2005	Mahanandi	Nandini	Telugu
2006	Vikramarkudu	Neeraja Goswami	Telugu
2006	Astram	Anusha	Telugu
2006	Rendu	Jothy	Tamil/Telugu
2006	Stalin		Telugu	Special appearance
2007	Lakshyam	Indu	Telugu
2007	Don	Priya	Telugu
2008	Okka Magaadu	Bhavani	Telugu
2008	Swagatham	Shailu	Telugu
2008	Baladoor	Bhanumathi	Telugu
2008	Souryam	Swetha	Telugu
2008	Chintakayala Ravi	Sunitha	Telugu
2008	King		Telugu	Special appearance
2009	Arundhati	Arundhati, Jejamma	Telugu	Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Telugu Nandi Special Jury Award Santosham Best Actress Award CineMAA Award for Best Actress
2009	Billa	Maya	Telugu
2009	Vettaikkaran/Puliveta	Susheela	Tamil/Telugu	Vijay Award for Favourite Heroine
2010	Kedi		Telugu	Special appearance
2010	Singam/Yamudu	Kavya Mahalingam	Tamil/Telugu	Nominated—Vijay Award for Favourite Heroine
2010	Vedam	Saroja	Telugu	Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Telugu Santosham Best Actress Award CineMAA Award for Best Actress (Jury)
2010	Panchakshari	Panchakshari, Honey	Telugu
2010	Thakita Thakita		Telugu	Special appearance
2010	Khaleja	Subbalakshmi	Telugu
2010	Nagavalli	Chandramukhi	Telugu	Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Telugu
2010	Ragada	Shirisha	Telugu
2011	Vaanam	Saroja	Tamil
2011	Deiva Thirumagal/Nanna	Anuradha Ragunathan	Tamil/Telugu	Jaya Award For Favorite Actress
2012	Saguni		Tamil	Special appearance Post-Production
2012	Damarukam	Devakanya	Telugu	Post-Production
2012	Alex Pandian		Tamil	Filming
2012	Thaandavam		Tamil	Filming
2012	Irandam Ulagam		Tamil	Filming
2012	Brindavanomlo Nandakumaradu		Telugu	Filming
2012	Vaaradhi		Telugu	Filming
2012	Singam 2	Kavya Mahalingam	Tamil	Pre-production

Awards and nominations

Wins

• 2010: Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Telugu - Arundhati
• 2010: Nandi Special Jury Award - Arundhati
• 2010: CineMAA Award for Best Actress - Arundhati
• 2010: Vijay Award for Favourite Heroine - Vettaikkaran
• 2011: CineMAA Award for Best Actress (Jury) - Vedam
• 2011: Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Telugu - Vedam
• 2011: Jaya Award for Favorite Actrees - Deiva Thirumagal

Nominations

• 2011: Filmfare Award for Best Actress - Telugu - Nagavalli
• 2011: Vijay Award for Favourite Heroine - Singam